FUNNY FRIDAY: How times have changed! Here is what you had to do when you worked in an office in 1872

Office

Rules and Regulations

By Geiger, 1872

Office employees will daily sweep the floors, dust the furniture, shelves, and showcases.

Each day fill lamps, clean chimneys, and trim wicks. Wash the windows once a week.

Each clerk will bring in a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s business.

Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to your individual taste.

This office will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p. m. daily except on the Sabbath, on which day it will remain closed.

Men employees will be given an evening off each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go regularly to church.

Every employee should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefits during his declining so that he will not become a burden upon the charity of his betters.

Any employee who smokes Spanish cigars uses liquor in any form, gets shaved at a barber shop, or frequents pool or public halls will give a good reason to suspect his worth, intentions, integrity and honesty.

The employee who has performed his labor faithfully and without faults for a period of five years in my service and who has been thrifty and attentive to his religious duties and is looked upon by his fellow men as a substantial and law-abiding citizen will be given an increase of five cents per day, providing a just return of profits from the business permits it.

Vinegar of the Four Thieves was a recipe that was known for its antibacterial, antiviral, antiseptic and antifungal properties for years. It was even used to cure the Bubonic Plague.

Have you heard excessive brain labor causes baldness or the cure for wrinkles is a tepid bath in bran?

Do you want to know Thomas Jefferson’s recipe for Vinegar of the Four Thieves or how to make Ox Tail Soup?

Have you ever had ‘blueberry pickles’, ‘batallia pie’ or ‘snow birds’? You will learn all this and more in “Vinegar of the Four Thieves.”

Our ancestors had to be resilient when they faced obstacles in daily life, from dealing with pests, medical emergencies, caring for clothing and cleaning shortcuts. Almost everything they used in daily life was homemade. Some ideas were great but some were very strange.

This book is a collection of household tips, medical cures, clothing care and old recipes from the 1800’s and 1900’s. Many of the tips, such as the household cleaners, cooking tips and ways to control pests, still work and are helpful in today’s ‘green’ environment while others such as ‘how to cure a dog of eating eggs’ will make you laugh. Either way, this book will help you appreciate the difficult life your grandparents endured. With Bonus: First two chapters of novel Ribbon of Love

No atheists in that office. And oh boy, if they busted themselves for 13 hours a day, six days a week for five years, and IF the profits were there, they MIGHT get a whopping raise of a nickel a day or 30 cents more a week. That’s probably where the term “sweatshop” originated. 🙂

We are excited here at AP. Our latest volume in our popular Alabama Footprints series has been released.

The eighth edition, BANISHED, documents The Indian Removal Act called for the “voluntary or forcible removal of all Indians” residing in the eastern United States to the west of the Mississippi River. Between 1831 and 1837, approximately 46,000 Native Americans were forced to leave their homes in southeastern states. Available in paperback and ebook at this link

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